20. Compassion and Desire meet in Embodied Persons
‘If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion’
Dalai Lama
‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field; I’ll meet you there.’
Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
‘Compassion is the antidote to the self-chosen poison of anger.’
Author unknown
How can I satisfy my desire? How can I have compassion for others? The idea expressed in this chapter is that these two questions, which were the starting point for the whole work, are really just the same question. If we look again at the meaning of compassion used in this work — as justice and celebration — then hopefully the reality of this will start to become clear. Compassion is much more than a response to the suffering of others in acts of mercy — it is also a response to the joy in others. Joy is found in relationship — either relationship with other embodied persons, or with nature. There is beauty in such interactions — indeed beauty is the highest aim as it embraces both compassion and love. Also, the idea of embodiment is critical. If we were only to relate as minds, then we would be back to the problems that we examined in the previous chapter. We would only have the idea of love rather than actual interaction. We are so caught up in this representation of experience, that the reality of embodiment, the actual experience of joy, gets immediately translated into a thought process. As such, it enters the ever-receding horizon of signifiers that our language has constructed and it is lost. It is so difficult, almost impossibly difficult, for us to grasp the reality of this crucial difference between being totally at one with our actions and representing our actions as examples in reference to an external truth. Eastern thought however, has long since understood this point. The passage below from the Tao will seem obscure from our Western perspective, but illustrates very well the way in which we lose ourselves when we try to quantify action:
‘The person of superior integrity takes no action,
Nor has he a purpose for acting.
The person of superior humaneness takes action,
But has no purpose for acting.
The person of superior righteousness takes action,
And has a purpose for acting.
The person of superior etiquette takes action,
But others do not respond to him;
Whereupon he rolls up his sleeves
And coerces them.
Therefore, when the Way is lost,
Afterwards comes integrity.
When integrity is lost,
Afterwards comes humaneness.
When humaneness is lost,
Afterwards comes righteousness.
When righteousness is lost,
Afterwards comes etiquette.
Tao te Ching (as translated by Victor H. Mair).
There is no thought here to having a ‘morality’ or a code of ethics. From within the Way there is no need. We are reminded that all explanations are just human constructs and therefore cannot reach any kind of explanation of reality — a theme of which we are best to remind ourselves constantly. The person of integrity doesn’t necessarily do nothing. This person however recognises that all action outside of the Way is a human construct and therefore is second best. Acting from within the Way cannot be defined, although potentially it could be lived. All responses separate action from being. But we are not separate from our action or inaction — we are our action in the world. In the previous chapter, we saw how Western culture has subordinated ethics to ontology, or morality to truth — in Grace Jantzen’s words — being (in the sense of embodying value) over existence. Jantzen goes on to look at how Levinas understands desire in terms of a response to the face of others — to their embodiment:
‘In Levinas’ thinking, desire itself is reshaped by the face of the other, shaped into a response that goes far beyond myself. It is not the name of a lack, but the release from self-enclosure, a joy therefore, that is always in excess, and a desire that is not diminished in its fulfilment. In all this, it bears the trace of the divine...
‘Such excessive desire, such interminable yearning and fulfilment, is not, for Levinas, something which is strictly ‘spiritual’…. On the contrary, since it is a response to the face of the neighbour or stranger, and concerned with the needs they express, desire is embodied. Embodiment, for Levinas … is the very site of transcendence.
‘”The human subject is first of all an animated and inspired body, the incarnate, affective spirituality of a passion for the other…. Transcendence is no longer an ascent to a heaven of the ideal or the sublime, but humble endurance of everyday life, touched, affected, wounded, obsessed and exhausted. A human subject is an inspired body.”’
(Jantzen quotes from Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak. Emphases mine.)
We have traced the outworking of these ideas through several chapters now. Our starting point has been simply to see. In seeing, we see the more obvious beauty in the world, both in nature and in other people. This beauty inspires awe and gratitude. It welcomes us and leads us into finding more beauty. It allows us to step outside of ourselves — to take an eternal perspective. It helps us to let go of those things that we cling to at our cost — both physical things (materialism) and emotional and psychological things. In letting go, we are free to create. What we create is more beauty in the world. We become pleasure — pleasure for ourselves and pleasure for others. Beauty also manifests as a fairness in our dealings with the world. Equality is the starting point for both justice and freedom. As justice and freedom are brought about, we celebrate with others in joy. This is our compassion, this is fulfilment of desire. The emphasis on pleasure, celebration and joy and their strong links to compassion, equality, freedom and justice might be regarded with suspicion by some. It is not the usual moral tone! Alexander Lowen stresses the need for a balance:
‘Talking of love, but disassociating it from its relation to pleasure is moralising. Morality has never solved the emotional difficulties of man. On the other hand, stressing the importance of pleasure in disregard of the basic need of people for some security, stability and order in their lives is irresponsible. This can only lead to chaos and misery. The human condition needs a creative approach to its opposing needs. We must recognise that the more pleasure one has, the more one’s ability to love. We must know that in offering our love, we increase our pleasure.’
Alexander Lowen — Pleasure (my emphases).
This link between compassion for oneself and compassion for others is a deep and important one:
‘By dropping or letting go of worlds of subjects/objects, we sink into a consciousness of interdependence and indeed of transparency. Our experiences of transparency and synchronicity are experiences of no-thing-ness, and vice versa. As we allow this truth to penetrate us more and more deeply we begin to realise the truth of compassion: to relieve another person’s pain or to celebrate another’s joy is to relieve one’s own pain and to celebrate one’s own joy.’
Matthew Fox — Original Blessing
A similar idea is expressed by Thomas Merton:
‘The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and are all involved with one another.’
Thomas Merton — Marxism and Monastic Perspectives
Returning us to our widest perspective, a simple quote from Ken Wilber reminds of the link between compassion and oneness:
‘…the Many returning to and embracing the One is Good and is known as wisdom; the One returning to and embracing the Many is goodness, and is known as compassion.’
Ken Wilber — Sex, Ecology. Spirituality
Finally, and leading us into the next chapter, a passage from Danah Zohar:
‘In my own being, which draws its very existence from the creation of relational wholes, I am by nature a creature which is stuff of the same substance with love, truth and beauty. Not because I create them, but because the nature of my own consciousness is synonymous with the nature of their meaning. Through my own being, I have the capacity to act as midwife to their expression in this world, and they in turn mould and make the self that I am. The same would be said of all spiritual values, all of which share the common quality that they create relationship, and thus are stuff of the same substance as myself. There is a firm basis for commitment to them.’
Danah Zohar — The Quantum Self (my emphasis).
